A man was killed Sunday when officers from a half-dozen law enforcement agencies opened fire at the end of a chaotic police chase in South Georgia, officials said.
The chase kicked off in Reidsville after 51-year-old Kelly Shannon Bowen kidnapped a hostage during a home invasion and sped away on I-16, according to the GBI. Multiple shots were fired before it was all over, including one that grazed a state trooper in the head, officials said in a news release.
The GBI is now investigating the incident as an officer-involved shooting, the 16th police shooting for the agency and the fifth to result in a death this year.
Tattnall County sheriff’s deputies and Reidsville police officers were the first to join in the chase after the kidnapping was reported shortly after 11 a.m. According to the GBI, the hostage’s family tried to follow Bowen until authorities caught up with him in Collins, a small city in Tattnall County about 30 miles southwest of Statesboro.
“Shots were fired by the kidnapper at the hostage’s family during the initial pursuit,” Lindsay Smith, the GBI agent in charge of the investigation, said in the news release. “The man fired at a Georgia State Patrol trooper on I-16 in Candler County, grazing the trooper in the head.”
He also tried to ram multiple police vehicles as the chase wound its way into Bulloch County, Smith said. After several attempts to disable Bowen’s vehicle, a PIT maneuver was successful and the car stopped on the side of I-16 in Bulloch.
“Once the vehicle was stopped, the man removed the hostage from the vehicle at gunpoint and then crossed a fence along the edge of I-16, entering the backyard of a residence,” Smith said. “The hostage was able to get free from the kidnapper, who was then shot by multiple law enforcement officers from multiple jurisdictions.”
Officers from the Georgia State Patrol, Tattnall County Sheriff’s Office, Reidsville Police Department, Evans County Sheriff’s Office, Candler County Sheriff’s Office and Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office fired their weapons, she said. It was not clear how many times Bowen was shot. He was flown to Memorial Health University Hospital in Savannah, where he died.
During the chaos, gunfire struck a resident of a nearby home. The resident’s injuries were minor and did not require medical attention, according to the GBI. The resulting investigation temporarily shut down the westbound lanes of I-16 near Lanier Road.
As traffic slowed, a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of a vehicle and set off a chain reaction collision. Dublin High School principal Jaroy Stuckey and his family were killed.
The GBI’s medical examiner in Pooler will perform an autopsy on Bowen, who was from Dooly County. His relationship to the hostage was not disclosed.
Once an investigation is complete, it will be turned over to the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.
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